OmegaMine (16 page)

Shaking his head, he took her hand, turned and unlocked the
door. After glancing at the bag just inside the office, he decided it would be
safe enough until they came back for it.

The noise hit first. The big screen television was blasting
some sports event while the sound of glasses being stacked and sorted echoed
from the bar. They walked down the hall and the voices went quiet.

Diskant guided her through the tables slowly, wanting everyone
to see his mate and appreciate what a lucky bastard he was. They all recognized
Ava as his other half and could smell his mating scent all over them. Several
of the shifters lowered their eyes and turned their heads to reveal their
throats—a display of respect and deference—while a few turned away, obviously
unhappy with the fact he’d mated with a human.

As he’d expected, Trey, Nathan and Emory were seated in the
booth at the far wall. The stark amber glow in their matching irises warned him
they were still juiced from whatever they’d discovered at the warehouse. All of
them looked like they’d been on a bender, with thick stubble lining their lower
jaw and chins, but Emory looked the worst.

Diskant assessed the Alpha, noting that his once-long hair
was now cut short, the ink-black strands now curving along his head and ears.
He seemed harder somehow—not a good sign. When he’d left New York after he and
Trey had nearly torn each other apart, Emory’d had the temperament, and the
short fuse, of a fucking pit bull. Diskant couldn’t recall a time he’d seen the
Alpha this unkempt and ragged, with rumpled clothing and a wild, untrusting
gleam in his eyes.

Not since the night Trey almost killed him.

Stopping at the empty, left-hand side of the table, Diskant
bent down to whisper into Ava’s ear, “In you go,” and waited until she complied
before he followed suit. As soon as his ass hit the seat, she slid up against
him, her hip in solid contact with his, and placed her hand on his thigh. A
ball of white-hot, undeniable sexual need shot from his stomach to his groin,
causing the muscles beneath her palm to tighten, the skin just around her
fingers suddenly sensitive and heated.

Christ, her touch and nearness felt just right.

He settled back and draped his arm over her shoulders, his
hand feathering across the rise of her breast. Her breath hitched but she
didn’t budge, although he did feel her tremble. He tried to stem the flow of
arousal, although he thrilled in the fact she could feel it equally as much.

“I called for a meeting of all the Alphas in the area,” Trey
said. “Since we don’t have long before everyone arrives, I’m going to put this
shit in the open. We found the missing shifters.” Trey’s low grumble was laced
with outrage. “All of them were dead. Shot through the heart with silver
bullets. But that’s not the worst part.” Trey’s gaze briefly flitted to Ava and
she tensed, fingers clutching Diskant’s leathers as if she knew what Trey was
going to say. “They were skinned, and judging by the amount of blood on the
scene, they were alive when the sick bastards did it.”

“Why do you think that is?” Diskant leveled a stare at
Emory, daring him to turn away as he asked, “What could possibly possess
Shepherds to wage war on an area with the largest shifter population in the
Northeastern portion of the United States?”

Trey looked at Diskant then turned to Emory, his face
shifting from livid to confused as he comprehended something was extremely
wrong.

“What have you done, Emory?” Trey’s voice reflected his
wariness and distrust. Already the gloves were off. Trey and Emory had never
gotten along following Emory’s maturation into an Alpha, parted by differences
in ages and the ingrained predisposition to dominate.

“It isn’t what you think,” Emory growled, immediately on the
defensive.

“
What. The fuck. Did you do
?” Each snarled word from
Trey was brisk and clear.

A brief but notable amount of apprehension appeared on
Emory’s face before his thick brows furrowed and he pressed his lips together.
Whatever the problem was, he didn’t want to discuss it.

“They came to my mate’s apartment looking for you.” Although
Diskant made sure his tone was cool, his anger was unmistakable.

Emory’s focus darted over, his eyes resting on Ava. His
heavily shadowed jaw began to tic. Diskant imagined his hands were forming into
fists.

“They drew on us,” Diskant continued, studying Emory
intently. “In plain sight. Whatever you’ve done, they’re not going to forget it
or move on. You’ve got a bulls-eye on your back and I’m sure there’s a price on
your head. You can’t expect others to suffer as a consequence. You’re going to
have to balls up.”

Emory tore his gaze from Ava and glared at the table. He was
breathing hard, chest heaving. Nathan placed a firm hand on his arm and Diskant
knew the Beta was filtering some of his anger by taking it into himself. After
several seconds, the gleam in Emory’s eyes lessened. Nathan let him go and
sagged into the leather-cushioned seat, panting as his clenched fists resting
atop the table tightened and loosed spastically.

“After I left I decided to go to Colorado,” Emory said
quietly, voice shaky. “It was a nice change of scenery and a decent place to go
it alone. I was there a couple of months before I met the most amazing female.
She was smart, she was beautiful, and as you’ve probably guessed, she was mine.
I couldn’t believe the dumb fucking luck of it all. I left home and found my
one true calling. Then I found out her name.” Emory looked up and stared
Diskant in the eye. “Mary Shepherd.”

Everyone at the table went quiet and eerily still and it was
immediately mirrored by the pack members in the bar. Diskant turned from Emory,
narrowing his eyes and gazing about the room. They’d all heard what Emory said
but by adding to the tension they were making shit much, much worse.

This was
not
good news.

After a moment the noise level increased and the pack
returned to business as usual, although in a much more muted fashion. Diskant
returned his attention the table, noting the strain on everyone’s faces.

“You’re mated to a Shepherd?” Trey sounded as sick as
Diskant felt.

Emory’s nod was jerky, his voice gruff. “I tried to stay
away from her. She’s too young and both the man and the wolf recognized that,
but it was too difficult to deny the pull. After a couple of weeks I started visiting
her college, watching her from a distance. When I finally approached her I
realized she had no fucking clue what I was. I found out why when we sat down
for a cup of coffee and I learned her parents had died when she was fifteen and
she’d moved to live with her aunt and uncle in Colorado.”

“Separatists?” Diskant asked, curious and intrigued.

“From what she shared with me, I would imagine so. I
couldn’t exactly ask her about it since she isn’t aware any of our kind exist.”

“How did they find out about you?” Trey was still
shell-shocked; it showed in his expression and his somber tone.

“Since I couldn’t exactly knock on her door and introduce
myself, I made sure that we always met somewhere in the city. Her uncle got
suspicious after we exchanged phone calls and decided to follow her. He was
waiting to meet us after we shared a meal and were about to hit the movies, and
he had a fucking troop of his kin with him.”

Emory hesitated, swallowing loudly.

“I tried not to shift but when he lunged for Mary it was
impossible to control all the changes. They were endangering my mate and the
wolf surfaced.” His voice became a heavy snarl. “I couldn’t stop them from
taking her, not when they told her what I was and she ran as fast as she
possibly could in the opposite direction. It was hard enough staying alive when
they were firing silver buckshot at my ass.”

“Did you mark her?” Diskant knew he was asking a difficult
question. All things considered, he highly doubted Emory had taken it that far.
If he had, there was no way he would have allowed Mary to flee.

“No,” Emory answered, confirming Diskant’s suspicion. “There
was never any chance to. The night we were discovered was the first night we
were alone.” He lowered his head into his hands. “I shouldn’t have come here.
Hell, I didn’t for several weeks. You have no idea how hard it’s been, to know
my mate exists but not be able to claim her. That’s why I came back. If I don’t
do something soon, I’ll return for her even if it kills me.”

Trey slammed his fist on the table, growling. “How long ago
did this happen?”

“Five weeks.” Emory lifted his head. The anguish in his
voice was mirrored in his posture.

“Every dead shifter inside that warehouse was a different
breed, and not one of them was a wolf.” Trey lifted his head and looked
directly at Diskant, conveying the significance of the fact. “When the leaders
of the shifter races learn that Shepherds are in town for Emory they’ll demand
we hand him over. No one will risk going to war with them. Not if it endangers
their families and mates.”

Diskant cursed the circumstances, processing the information
as quickly as possible. As an Omega, he had the final say on what went down in
his city. Sometimes that held sway when it came to the wolves in the area. He
had, after all, been born a wolf shifter and maintained very close ties to
them. But by killing off different shifter breeds—of a predatory nature no
less—the Shepherds effectively made this a matter he couldn’t take sides on.
When those missing pack and pride mates demanded recompense he would be
expected to provide it. Emory, a werewolf born into his original pack, wouldn’t
qualify for any special consideration. Their connection alone would cause all
the other shifters to be wary and distrusting.

Diskant looked at Ava, torn for the first time in his life.

If he weren’t newly mated, the decision would be as simple
as breathing. Despite his status, he would arrange something that would save
his brethren and force the threat from the city. Shepherds took the
supernatural creatures they captured to special holding places where they could
be “exorcised” of the demon within before their soul was given safe passage to
the hell they viewed as heaven. Knowing that, he could have safely handed Emory
over, trailed the sadistic zealots and put an end to this outside of his
territory.

Now, however, there was so much more at stake.

He couldn’t leave Ava behind. Following a second mark she’d
need the closeness and mating more than before. Without it, she would become
crazed. Not a pretty sight, especially when a newly mated shifter was killed
and left his or her mate behind. Usually the most humane thing to do was to put
them down.

Of all the fucking irony
.

Ava went tense beside him and he started to lean over to ask
her what was wrong when Trey braced his elbows on the table and a loud growl
rent the air.

“I’m not handing my brother to them.” The wolf under Trey’s
skin was barely contained. His eyes changed color as his canines lengthened,
causing his vowels to slur. “If they want him, they’ll have to fight for him.”

Diskant had to force his own wolf to quiet as it rose to
greet a fellow pack mate’s fury. He understood Trey’s outburst, as Diskant was
the one who had brought the pack together after Trey and Emory faced off,
nearly killing each other in the process. Their rivalry put an enormous wedge
between the wolves in the pack. It was the only reason Emory had decided to
leave. Two roosters in a henhouse wasn’t a good idea, and no matter how much
the men loved each other, their wolves were too dominant to stomach the other
existing inside their territory.

Ava lifted her hand and wrapped her fingers around his
wrist, caressing his knuckles with flicks of her thumb while leaning against
him. The effect was staggering. The wolf went quiet, was forced aside, and he
heard the cat within purr as it took control, brushed against the inside of his
skin and attempted to get closer to the woman stroking him.

“Trey.” Nathan spoke quietly and clasped his Alpha’s arm.
“Don’t amp up the room. They’re already primed.”

“Goddamn it,” Trey snapped as he struggled with his beast
and attempted to take control. After a moment, when he was back in charge,
Nathan released him. The strain was evident in the Beta’s posture, his hand
visibly trembling as he pulled it beneath the table.

“Did you contact all of the Alphas about the missing
shifters?” Diskant asked, hoping like hell that he didn’t sound like the
pussycat Pinkie had brought to the surface of his skin.

Trey took a deep breath and sat back, shaking his head. “I
left as soon as we made the discovery and came here.”

“I can’t put shifter lives in danger for the sake of one of
my own, which means we need time to formulate a plan. As soon as the Alphas
find out what’s happening, you know what they’re going to want.” Diskant made
sure he had Trey’s full attention when he said, “We have to know what we’re
going to do when we’re forced to hand Emory over. Do you want to take this
across state lines? Do you want to risk placing their wrath on the heads of
another pack?”

It was a fucked-up situation none of them wanted to be a
part of. No matter what they did, they sacrificed one of their own. By choosing
to follow and rescue they’d tread into the territories of other packs along the
way. Shepherds were known for making their messages loud and clear by
annihilating the populations in small towns, and there were bound to be plenty
of them between New York and Colorado.

“We have to end this here.” Trey rubbed his hands together
and gazed blindly across the room. “If we follow them, we’ll have to kill
everyone we find.”

“Can you live with that?” Diskant asked, unable to force the
rest of the question from his mouth. Could any of them live with killing women
and children? Because that is what it would come down to. Shepherds steeped
their children in their warped beliefs at a young age, ensuring that their
demented “purpose” was ingrained from the moment they could understand the
spoken word.